Northern Engraving

Personal Blog

Elise2018-10-312018-11-01Comments Off on Quotes from A.S. Neill on his living free Summerhill School school

The book Summerhill School – A New View to Childhood tells the experience and observations of A.S. Neill running a free school in Suffolk, England for fifty years. The book was originally written in 1960 when Neill was 88-years old. It’s amazing to see the story of a school that was founded in 1921 on revolutionary principles for today.

When Neil died in 1973, his wife Ena took on the school for 12 years. The school is now run by their daughter Zoe. Let’s look at some interesting quotes from the book.

The pupils are free to attend classes whenever they want. The kids can play for days, weeks or years. There’s freedom from any indoctrination, whether religious or moral or political and freedom from molding. And the pupils and staff self-govern the school through weekly meetings.

Neill admits some problems the school had too, bullying being the main one. He tells a few times how he would have liked to not take in problem-children that could disrupt the harmony of the younger simply because he knew that the problem-child would have no other better school (that could do him some good) to go to.

LET’S FACE IT GUYS

Every time you take a swig of your Peruvian pour over to wash down that cheesy egg biscuit breakfast, you are feeding millions of hitchhiking germs living in between your crooked teeth. Those germs eat your leftovers and shit all through your mouth, probably because they hate you.

Their fecal donations become even worse while you’re sleeping. Yet, you use the same toothbrush to clean your teeth week after week after week (give or take a week). But, don’t worry. Everything else you clean yourself with is just as disgusting. If you flush the toilet without closing the lid, your whole bathroom will be covered in a fine mist of whatever you put in there. That’s why my bathroom is covered in grape Kool-Aid.

When you’re working in close quarters, such as in an office, spaceship, or prison cell, you are bound to run into someone who hates deodorant or doesn’t know about toothpaste. Most of the time, these folks mean well and simply do not realize their pungent odor. It’s tough to smell yourself unless you really try hard, in which case what the hell are you doing?

As a manager, you can guarantee that your employees will let you know when someone commits an olfactory violation. It’s important to address the situation with the culprit as asap as possible before the gossipers fire up the blab engine and hurt some stinky schmuck’s feelings.

Elise2018-07-192018-11-01Comments Off on What you can learn from online promotion that went wrong in the past

We’ve been advertising offline for hundreds of years. We’ve been marketing online long enough to learn a thing or two. One of the things we’ve learned is how powerful the two can be when they’re blended, like a fine scotch. But when it goes bad, it tastes awful. The following happened several years ago, but I still get a bad taste in my mouth…

Like PepsiCo’s (PEP, info) effort some years ago. I remember that I was drinking some soda out of a large cup from a fast food place. I noticed a “Peel-Here-to-Win” sticker on the side of the cup. I peeled the sticker to see what I may have won and found the words (words?) “M4PER AYZVF” on the other side. Puzzled, I looked at the front of the cup again. It said, “For details, go to www.www.stolenviolin.com/.” I thought, “Cool.” Here’s what happened:

1. My browser took me to a page that offered a free Internet answering machine. “Hear who is calling while you’re online! Avoid the cost of an extra phone line. Continue reading →

Elise2018-05-262018-07-26Comments Off on Two Google Conversion Tracking Options For Your AdWords Campaign

We’re trying to track what keywords in our Google AdWords account are converting for us. You have no idea what an important question this is!

I am amazed and annoyed when people bring be their failing AdWords accounts to review and they haven’t even bothered to try and measure the simplest of performance statistics – the number of conversions each of their keywords is achieving.

It’s really simple to do and the information provided can actually save you tons of money and time in wasted effort. The absolute minimum that every AdWords account holder should do is set-up conversion tracking for all their AdWords keywords.

Elise2018-04-222018-11-11Comments Off on Should You Still Create Your Brand’s Facebook Presence?

Whether you are a small startup or a blogger looking to help grow your reader base and increase your traffic, creating a Facebook page is your first step. Or should I say WAS? I don’t think so. Facebook is still the most relevant platform and is still the most affordable option. If you don’t have the budget to hire a social media professional at this stage of the game then that means the responsibilities will fall to you, or someone on your team.

Your Facebook page is still very important. it should reflect your brand’s or your personal style, your personality, and professionalism as is often shown very well by moms on the “Cows In The Barn” website. This post is intended to only cover the very basic steps of starting your Facebook page, there is much more information than I can cover in the space of one blog post that you’ll need to know. I’m not going to cover things like choosing an avatar, or a cover image. Those are self-explanatory in my opinion.

Elise2018-03-192018-11-01Comments Off on Learn About Things Your Car Dealer Isn’t Telling You

Without exception, nothing is more exciting than sitting behind the wheel of your new car for the first time and taking it out for a spin. The downside of that experience is the process you go through to get to this point. Shopping for a new vehicle is not popular with the majority of us.

The maze we often must negotiate, especially when going to a dealership, can take a great deal of the joy of ownership out of the equation. This is due to the incredibly complicated process dealerships often take us through in order to ‘seal the deal’.

Because the most stressful part of the shopping process for that perfect vehicle for you is having to deal with the salesperson, the following is a list of car dealership secrets to know before setting foot on the lot.

The Old Bait and Switch

Even in this day and age of consumer protectionism, some dealers will still employ tricks of the trade to make the sale. One glaring example is the advertised special to draw customers to the dealership.

Starting up in business can be both exhilarating and daunting at the same time. There are a number of financial and practical issues that you will need to consider before launching yourself into the world of business.

What type of business are you looking to set up?

The first thing you’ll need is a sound business idea, along with a name for your new enterprise. Then you’ll need to decide on what type of company best suits your business idea. For example, will you trade as self-employed, or are you looking to set up a limited company or some other type of venture?

If you can run your business from home, at least at first, all the better, as you’ll save on rental charges. However, for some types of business, you will need to consider renting premises and you’ll need to take rental costs into account when you make your business plan.

I have a client who is 39 weeks pregnant with her first full-term pregnancy. It is a very exciting time for her and I am honored to be her Doula. While we have been spending the last several days texting and talking about the progress her body is making, I have also been serving my massage therapy clients in my office.

As you may have read in my last blog post, I really love my job. I love giving massage and helping women find comfort to cope with stress and the physical pains caused by it. I also really love working with women as they enter the homestretch of pregnancy in preparation for their baby’s birth.

What I don’t like is math! I’m in the process of preparing to write a grant to hopefully get some money to expand my business and relieve some of the financial stress on my family (teenagers are so expensive!) As I began this process through marketing adult students art, I have realized that the business plan I prepared 6 years ago in massage therapy school is no longer adequate. Fortunately, I benefitted so much from the from GED prep that I passed my GED and could go to college to get my massage therapy diploma!

All the world’s a stage for this larger-than-life New Orleans educator and his students

With peeling paint, institution issues, cracked linoleum tiles, broken windowpanes and hopelessly scuffed wood floors, the building that houses the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts Academy shows all its 100 years.

But a palpable energy thrives within, feeds on itself and intensifies, thanks largely to a dedicated staff of professional actors/dancers/artists-turned teachers and their extraordinary young charges.

Henry Hoffman is among the teachers whose unflagging enthusiasm for and belief in his students make the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts the success story it has become since its opening in 1974, with alumni including jazz greats Wynton Marsalis and Terrence Blanchard and stage actors Anthony Mackie and Mary Catherine Garrison.

Elise2017-09-292018-11-11Comments Off on Texas teacher makes physics her fulcrum

Hands-on techniques and enthusiasm leverage student interest

To put learning in motion, physics teacher Peggy Schweiger puts students in motion. Schweiger’s Klein Oak High (Spring, Texas) students design fettuccine bridges, pipe insulation roller coasters, and straw towers. They wire dollhouses with three kinds of circuits and build cardboard boats to row in a regatta.

Near Schweiger’s desk, hanging from the ceiling, is an 18-pound bowling ball on which a teddy bear named Newton rests. As a pendulum, the bowling ball is a dramatic lesson in energy conservation to her students and a lesson in trust for the volunteer who stands nearby. Schweiger pulls the bowling ball to a position near the student’s nose and let’s go to show that, on its return, the ball can’t hit the stationary volunteer in the nose, because it never gains more energy than it had at the start.

“I don’t have one of those classes where you walk by and kids are sitting there working with a book. This atmosphere really represents my personality,” says Schweiger, a member of All-USA Teacher Team, selected earlier this year as representatives of the nation’s outstanding teachers.